Tenders for IT and Telecommunications Contracts

The IT and telecommunications market is highly complex with a range of different services and product offerings. Tender opportunities arise for multiple products including IT infrastructure, website and software development, cloud and other hosting solutions, traditional and IP telephone, IT support services, managed services, communications and cyber defence.

Most of the time, IT and telecommunications tenders and contracts encompass a number of different components and services bundled together into one tender package.  Many of our clients only bid for one stream of service in an entire tender package as this is the service they specialise in. Either way, we help our clients bid for IT and IT&T contracts regardless of if you are bidding for a broad or narrow range of services and regardless of if it is a software design tender, communications tender, information technology tender or telecommunications contract.

How can our bid and tender writing service help you?

Securing contracts that include a diverse range of services is a great way to diversify your income stream and internal capability. Our expert tender and bid writers have helped many IT companies in New Zealand and across the Asia Pacific write IT bids and secure private and public (government) sector contracts.. We can help you through the entire bid and tender process (or part of it) including:

• Identifying the opportunity (include tender identification for overseas firms).
• Undertaking the bid / no bid process.
• Strategising your response and developing win themes.
• Writing the first, second and final drafts.
• Reviewing the bid prior to submission.
• Developing graphics.
• Liaising with stakeholders to gather critical content and input.

As specialist public sector and private sector bid writers in New Zealand, we pride ourselves on writing winning IT and Telecommunications tenders for our clients.

Opportunities for IT & Telecommunications contracts

Many public and private organisations in New Zealand (and internationally) outsource their IT and telecommunications services. Alternatively, they have a small internal IT department that is supported by external service providers.

This structure offers a range of advantages such as helping them keep up with new technologies, innovations, and developments in the sector. With the costs of hiring and training internally often being prohibitive, organisations look to save time and money by outsourcing their IT and telecommunications needs. This creates a great opportunity for you to bid for IT related work through bids and tenders.

Generally speaking, formal procurement through releasing an RFP, RFT or RFI, is the most common and effective way for organisations to procure goods and services. It is critical for companies to undertake a thorough bid/no-bid analysis of each contract opportunity. You need to ensure your skills align with each opportunity and that you can not only meet the mandatory requirements but also meet and exceed the experience and other requirements of the contract.

Most companies are looking to make savings by procuring streamlined multi-disciplinary solutions for the IT and Telecommunications needs. It’s important to provide a solution as part of your proposal that meets their needs and demonstrates how you will deliver over the longer term.

Strategies for winning IT and Telecommunications Tenders

Ensure you comply

First of all, you need to conduct a thorough review of the specifications and other documentation. Review the KPIs, assess any insurance implications and ensure you can meet the relevant criteria. When you are reading the tender questions, it’s important to read between the lines and get a feel for what they are looking for. Assess the different services in the tender, and decide which services you propose to service. Create an internal checklist of all of the different requirements for submission and be sure to update this as the tender progresses. This will be a useful tool when submitting.

Put together a detailed mobilisation and implementation plan

A mobilisation and implementation plan that is considered, sensible and detailed is required to win almost any IT and Telecommunications industry tender. For public (government) and private sector organisations, making changes to IT and Telecommunications providers and services is inherently risky. There is generally a significant amount of client-facing activity and risk, and any systems outages carry substantial risk and potential damages.

Your mobilisation plan will need to account for and deal with these potential risks. It’s generally a good idea to list the risks in your plan in the form of a table, and detail the measures in place that mitigate each risk. Furthermore, your implementation plan should be chronological, and provide detail on all interdependencies. Don’t just limit your implementation plan to be technically focused. Think of all the different processes involved in the implementation – from client engagement meetings to reporting and critical escalation contact and communications establishment. These all need to be fleshed out in your implementation plan.

Focus on service and quality control

In order to secure a large, long-term content the buyer will want to know that you have the capacity to deliver the services to a high-quality standard over the entirety of the contract. Your bid and proposal must demonstrate a commitment to quality control. Our expert tender writers have written hundreds of quality plans and management systems over the years. If you do not have the appropriate accreditations, it is important to demonstrate how your documents align with the relevant requirements.

Equally important, is to demonstrate on a practical level, how you will deliver a quality service or product. For example, will you:

• Train your staff consistently and upskill them across the course of the contract.
• Internally audit your service to ensure you are complying with contract requirements.
• Implement a system to effectively deal with any complaints.
• Have comprehensive disaster recovery procedures in place.
• Undertake comprehensive product and service testing prior to any launch?

Your response needs to detail the practical measures you will take to quality in order to be compelling and secure the contract.

Privacy and Data Protection

Privacy and data protection issues are covered in just about all IT and telecommunications tenders. It is inevitable that you will have to answer a question on data protection and privacy in your tender response. It is absolutely critical that your policies and requirements mirror the requirements of the government. You need to ensure that your protocols either meet or exceed those of the government and that you actively manage any privacy and data issues.

Your ultimate aim to present your company as a credible, low-risk provider of products or services. Detail what processes you have in place, as well as accreditations and insurances, to ensure provide the appropriate data protection.

Providing evidence in your bid

Throughout your bid it is important to include and provide evidence. Evidence in the form of supporting documentation, testimonials and cold hard proof of facts. For example, let’s assume that you are deploying a new server for a large company with a team of five installation personnel. Instead of simply writing that five of your personnel will be carrying out the installation you could:

• Provide CVs for each of your personnel.
• Include a personal quote from your proposed team leader, talking about their excitement to work on the project.
• Include testimonials from your previous clients on each of your personnel and how they performed on previous projects.

How we can help with your upcoming IT, Software Development and Telecommunications tenders

Our team of tender and bid writers will help you write – to win. We can assist with all of your IT and Telecommunications tenders and bids including developing graphics and infographics to ensure you present a professional submission. We will help you find potential contracts for your business, as well as  write your response and develop the supporting documentation required to win. For highly technical information, we will work with you to translate it into simply, easy to understand contents that will engage procurement teams and ensure your bid resonates with the reader.

Contact our team today to discuss your next must-win contract. We help businesses across New Zealand including in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Duneden and across all the North and South Island.